Guan Zhong is a master who used prices to adjust the economy and increase the income of the imperial court. He once said, for example, that if the imperial court mastered a large amount of cloth, that is, it did not need to levy cloth tax, but levied on raw material hemp, and the price of hemp rose ten times due to taxation, then the price of cloth might rise fifty times; By the same token, if the imperial court mastered a large number of woven silks, it could tax raw silk and increase the price of woven silks tenfold. In international trade, he advocates treating the international price level according to different situations. The so-called "rule the world because of the world", if the quality of international goods is higher than that of China, he advocates raising the sales price of the goods in China to guide the import of foreign goods. ("What about the best materials in the world? The pipe says, five plus six, nine plus ten, it can't be counted "). To reward exports, it is necessary to lower the selling price. "The world is big, but I am small."

Guan Zhong is a pacifist. He seems more willing to use commercial war to weaken the influence of other countries. In the pipe? Two wonderful cases are recorded in the book light and heavy debate.

There are two small countries next to Qi, Juhe Lai, which have been in constant friction with Qi for many years. After Qi Huangong acceded to the throne, he asked Guan Zhong, "Ju and Lai have fields, and the national strength of Arnebia euchroma is not weak. How to deal with it? " Guan Zhong said: "These two countries produce Arnebia euchroma, but we produce copper. You should send some soldiers with no combat experience to mine copper and make money, and then use it to buy Lithospermum from both countries at a high price. "

The monarchs in Ju 'an and Lai 'an were overjoyed to hear that Qi had paid a high price for Arnebia euchroma. In their view, copper coins are treasured by people, and Arnebia euchroma is a specialty of our country. We exchange our specialty for all copper coins of Qi, so that Qi will eventually be annexed by us. As a result, under the call of the imperial court, the people of the two countries gave up grain production in succession to plant more profitable Arnebia euchroma. In the second year, Guan Zhong suddenly ordered all the soldiers who collected and smelted copper to go back to grow grain. Then, stop buying Lithospermum from Juhe and Lai. As a result, the grain prices of the two countries suddenly rose sharply, reaching as high as 370 yuan per minute, while the grain price of Qi was only 10 yuan per minute, and the people of Julai took refuge in Qi. After this war, the national strength of the two countries was greatly reduced and they had to unite with Qi.